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New Roman',serif;" valign="top"><a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-rights-of-farmers-everywhere-/lxngfs/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
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Indian Farmers Defend the Rights of Farmers
Everywhere</b></a></td>
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valign="top"><b>By Vijay Prashad</b>
<div>
<br>
On November 19, 2021, India’s Prime Minister
Narendra Modi <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/s-pms-address-to-the-nation-9-/lxngfv/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a>, “[W]e have
decided to repeal all three agricultural
laws.” The prime minister was referring to the
three agriculture laws that were <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/spite-a-massive-grain-surplus-/lxngfx/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">rushed</a> through
the parliament in 2020. During his speech to
announce the rollback, Modi told the farmers
that they “should return to [their] homes,
fields and to [their] families. Let’s make a
fresh start.” At no point did Modi admit that
his government had passed laws that would
negatively impact the farmers, who have spent
a year protesting the laws thrust upon them.<br>
<br>
It seems likely that Modi will not give up on
his policies to <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/spite-a-massive-grain-surplus-/lxngfx/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">privatize agriculture</a>,
but rather will return to them with different
packaging. “Our government has been working in
the interest of the farmers and will continue
to do so,” he insisted.<br>
<br>
<b>Jubilation at the Victory</b><br>
<br>
The idea that Modi’s BJP-led government had
been “working in the interest of the farmers”
was not apparent to the protesting farmers. To
gauge the sentiment of the farmers and their
organizations, I interviewed Dr. Ashok
Dhawale, the national president of the All
India Kisan Sabha—one of the key farmers’
associations—and a leader of the Samyukta
Kisan Morcha (SKM)—a United Farmers’ Front.
Dhawale told me that Modi’s promise to repeal
the three farm laws “is a classic case of too
little, too late.” It is “too little” because
Modi only accepted one of the farmers’ demands
(repealing the laws) and not the slate of
other demands, which included the creation of
a robust <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/definition-article24370556-ece/lxngfz/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">minimum support price</a>
(MSP) structure; it is “too late”
because during this year-long protest, 700
farmers have <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/m-laws-repeal-farmers-reaction/lxngg2/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">lost their lives</a>
due to the privations of the protest and
government repression.<br>
<br>
“This is only the second time in the last
seven years of his rule that Modi has been
forced to make a humiliating climbdown,”
Dhawale told me. “The first was in 2015, when
he was <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-rollback-101637301606697-html/lxngg4/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">forced</a> to take
back the Land Acquisition Act [of 2013], again
as a result of a countrywide farmers’
struggle.” Since Modi came to power in 2014,
he has pushed an <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/dossier-41-india-agriculture-/lxngg6/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">agenda</a> to deliver
Indian agriculture to the large <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/spite-a-massive-grain-surplus-/lxngfx/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">corporate houses</a>.
But the farmers fought him then and continue
to fight him now.<br>
<br>
The farmers <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/kri-just-suspicion-and-silence/lxngg8/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">have not left</a>
their protest encampment despite Modi’s <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/s-pms-address-to-the-nation-9-/lxngfv/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">statement</a> on
November 19. “They will stay put until these
hated farm laws are actually repealed by [the]
parliament,” Dhawale told me. “And also, until
their other demands are… [met]. All over the
country, there is jubilation that one part of
the battle has been won. But there is also [a]
determination to see that the other just
demands of this struggle are conceded.”<br>
<br>
<b>Why Modi Surrendered</b><br>
<br>
Dhawale said that there are several reasons
why Modi decided to repeal the three farm
laws. The first has to do with the <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ults-contemplate-action-333834/lxnggb/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">upcoming</a> regional
elections in the three key states that border
India’s capital, Delhi (Punjab, Uttarakhand,
and Uttar Pradesh). In recent months, the BJP
saw its supporters dwindle in number during
the by-elections that took place in the Indian
states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and
Rajasthan—in which the BJP did <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ws-yechury-121112401262-1-html/lxnggd/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">not</a> perform well.
These six states in northern India where
elections have either taken place or are
scheduled to take place are in close proximity
to Delhi and are the states from
where many of the farmers joined the protests,
which took place at Delhi’s border. If the
protests had continued, the leaders in the BJP
felt that the party would see major attrition
not only among the farmers and working class
but also among sections of the middle class in
India.<br>
<br>
Nothing is more important to focus on, Dhawale
said, than the actual struggle and
determination of the farmers. On September 5,
for instance, the farmers organized a <em>Kisan
Mahapanchayat</em> (a mass meeting of
farmers), which was <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/nagar-for-mahapanchayat-307045/lxnggg/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">called</a> by the SKM
and saw a huge turnout. The tone of the
meeting was fierce, with the farmers clear
that they were not only fighting against these
three laws but also against the entire
approach of the BJP government. The tenor of
the protest was to fight for a secular and
socialist India, a vision diametrically
opposed to the political ideology of Modi’s
far-right Bharatiya Janata Party known as <em>Hindutva</em>.<br>
<br>
The tempo of the struggle began to increase
through September. On September 27, the SKM
called for a <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/he-country-article36695436-ece/lxnggj/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">general strike</a>
across India (<em>Bharat Bandh</em>), which
was the third such strike during this
year-long protest by the farmers. It was “the
most successful of the three,” Dhawale said,
with millions of people joining the struggle.
A month later, on October 18, the farmers <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-50-trains-article37050905-ece/lxnggl/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">blocked</a> train
tracks (<em>Rail Roko</em>) across the country
against the BJP government, which had tried
unsuccessfully to use <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/cs-of-hate-article35027338-ece/lxnggn/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">religious differences</a>
to divide the farmers.<br>
<br>
Despite Modi’s announcement to roll back the
farm laws, tens of thousands of farmers
planned to <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/o-mark-one-year-of-stir-341601/lxnggq/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">gather</a> at Delhi’s
borders on November 26, the first anniversary
of the farmers’ revolt, with others protesting
in solidarity around the country. To build
toward this, on November 22, after Modi’s
surrender, leaders from the farmers’
organizations <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/er-22-mahapanchayat-in-lucknow/lxnggs/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">met</a> at a large <em>Kisan
Mahapanchayat</em> in Lucknow (the capital
of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh) to
pledge to continue the struggle. “The mood of
victory and determination was infectious,”
Dhawale told me.<br>
<br>
<b>Unsettled Issues</b><br>
<br>
Between 1995 and 2018, 400,000 Indian farmers
have <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ndia-between-1995-and-2018-why/lxnggv/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">committed</a>
suicide, 100,000 since Modi took office in
2014, Dhawale said. Their deaths are directly
linked to the agrarian crisis in India
produced by a combination of the withdrawal of
state regulation and intervention on behalf of
the farmers and the impact of the climate
catastrophe.<br>
<br>
In 2004, the Indian government asked the
eminent scientist M.S. Swaminathan to lead the
National Commission on Farmers. By 2006, the
commission produced five landmark <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/by-the-swaminathan-commission-/lxnggx/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">reports</a> with a
long list of important recommendations. Almost
none of the substantial recommendations have
been adopted by the successive governments.
One of the recommendations was to increase and
strengthen the MSP for farmers. Window
dressing by governments has not improved the
situation for the farmers; a recent <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/sReleasePage-aspx-PRID-1753856/lxnggz/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">survey</a> shows that
the farmers’ incomes have declined.<br>
<br>
Farmers know what they want, and they have
said so clearly: price supports, loan waivers,
withdrawal of electricity price hikes, repeal
of the labor codes, subsidized costs of fuel,
and so on. These issues, Dhawale said, “are at
the root of the agrarian crisis and massive
peasant indebtedness. They lead to farmer
suicides and to distress sales of farmlands.”<br>
<br>
“If farmers are to grow our food and farmers
are to eat, then the demands of the farmers
must be met,” Dhawale said. This is not just a
cry for Indian farmers. The farmers in India
continue to fight in a struggle they share
with farmers everywhere throughout the world.<br>
<br>
<em><b>Vijay Prashad</b> is an Indian
historian, editor and journalist. He is a
writing fellow and chief correspondent at <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-11-29/lxngh2/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">Globetrotter</a>.
He is the chief editor of <a
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moz-do-not-send="true">LeftWord Books</a>
and the director of <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-11-29/lxngh6/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
moz-do-not-send="true">Tricontinental:
Institute for Social Research</a>. He is a
senior non-resident fellow at <a
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moz-do-not-send="true">Chongyang Institute
for Financial Studies</a>, Renmin
University of China. He has written more
than 20 books, including</em> <a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/1595583424--tag-alternorg08-20/lxnghb/954001203?h=zMTG1GCm8EwVJ1oLI3i9M3iEifm3WqtU49REh-RCs8w"
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with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.</em></div>
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